/----------------------------------------------------------------\ | A M P f o r W i n d o w s 1.0beta2 | | The module player for Sound Blaster AWE32 and compatibles | | Copyright (c) 1996-1997 by Lada Kopecky | \----------------------------------------------------------------/ 1. CONTENTS 2. Opening words 3. Features 4. Requirements 5. Files in this package 6. Installation 7. Using the player 8. Basic commands 9. Player options 10. Command line arguments 11. Unsupported module events 12. Something about treble setting 13. Future Plans 14. Common questions and answers 15. Disclaimer 16. Distribution rules 17. The license agreement 18. How to register 19. Comments and suggestions 20. Contacting the author 2. OPENING WORDS Hello and welcome to the new AWE Module Player for Windows! The long time of waiting is finally over - the very first native Windows module player using a hardware mixing on the Sound Blaster cards is out. Now you can listen to your favorite modules without sacrificing your computer's power and resources. Isn't it great? The player has been designed and optimized mainly for running in background without a user intervention. That involved some changes in conception. A built-in file selector with an easy to use playlist editor is included. New options have been added for controlling the playlist behavior (a loop removal, a playlist position saving etc). The player can be configured so that no user interaction is needed. On the other side, the real-time data displaying is limited, mainly due to the overhead of the Windows GUI routines. The player engine is the same as in the DOS version with all its excellent features such as a protection of highest notes by high quality resampling, a most correct module playback, a reliable loop removal etc. If you are interested in the most accurate playback of modules on the Sound Blaster AWE32 or Sound Blaster 32 cards with a minimal processor power and system memory consumption, then AMP for Windows is the best choice. Before you start using the player please do read through this description file. It will help you to get the maximum of every function provided by the AMP. In case you are totally unfamiliar with playback of music modules on your PC in general, you may need more information than this description file provides. We suggest you to visit some of the many web pages on the subject of music scene and music modules available on the Net. 3. FEATURES - plays XM modules (FT2.0x, format version $0104) - plays S3M modules (ST3.0+, IT1.01+) - plays MOD/NST modules (M.K. FLT4 nCHN nnCH OCTA N.T.) - plays MTM modules - plays PTM modules (max. 128 instruments) - plays IT modules (IT1.01+, see below) - up to 32 channels and 30 sounding notes - the strict compatibility with the FT2.06 and ST3.21 playback routines (including the emulation of many undocumented bugs) - professional quality downsampling of highest samples to avoid the EMU8000 pitch overflows. The high quality anti-aliasing filter is used and numerous secondary complications involved by downsampling are properly handled. So you won't loose *any* note and the quality of playback is the best possible! - runs perfectly in background - a minimal processor and memory usage! If you want to see some numbers: Windows 95 System Monitor shows a processor usage of 3% when playing a complex 16-channel module (CRONOLOG.S3M) on 486DX2-66 machine with AMP for Windows. The latest MOD4WIN player (in multimedia task mode, with 44kHz mixing rate and surround disabled) shows 80-110% CPU usage on its own panel and gives 100% permanently in System Monitor with the same module on the same machine. This seems to be a nonsense but anyway, it gives some information about the possible CPU usage. - plays multiple modules in batch (using wildcards and/or listfiles) - features an internal file selector and a listfile editor - can play modules in a random order - all kinds of song loops can be reliably disabled - a 'must have' option for background playback with the listfiles - all functions are reachable from both the keyboard and mouse - basic control commands are available also when the player is minimized - most of parameters are configurable from a command line so you can create different icons for a quick start with predefined configurations or playlists - loads and plays even slightly corrupted MOD files - the fast forward mode, pattern skip in both directions - a direct support for custom reverb/chorus types created by AWE32FXWorkShop - an easy to use song message viewer - can play even if not enough AWE memory - does not change the Sound Blaster mixer settings - does not use the SB DSP chip (i.e. you can simultaneously run a MIDI player or a tracker (configured to SB16) in a DOS box under Windows 95) 4. REQUIREMENTS - PC 386 or better - Sound Blaster AWE32 or a compatible sound card with the EMU8000 synthesizer (at least 2 MB of on-board sample RAM is *strongly* recommended) - if your card is a plug-and-play type, the EMU ports have to be configured into compatible locations (400hex apart). There should be no problem as this is a default setting. - Windows 3.1+ (in Enhanced Mode only) or Windows 95 - Windows AWE32 drivers as follows: Win 3.x ... version 2.25 (June 96) or newer Win 95 .... version 4.00 (original Win95 distribution) or newer version 4.25 (April 96) or newer is recommended for PnP cards 5. FILES IN THIS PACKAGE Here is a list of files enclosed to this package: AMPW.EXE - the AMP player application AMPSEQ.DLL - the AMP sequencer engine AMPW.INI - the configuration file (it remains in the appl directory) AMPW.REV - the revision history AMPW.TXT - this file REGFORM.TXT - the Registration Form FILE_ID.DIZ - the short program description 6. INSTALLATION Just unzip the archive into your destination directory. Don't copy or move anything into a windows directory. Then create manually a new icon (a shortcut in Windows95) pointing to AMPW.EXE. You can also assign the player as a default application for opening files having extensions MOD, NST, S3M, XM, MTM, PTM, IT. The program can be deinstalled very simply by deleting the whole directory and shortcuts/icons that you've created. 7. USING THE PLAYER I will focus mainly on things that are new to the Windows version. The player keeps an internal queue (or "playlist") of modules to be processed. This playlist can be loaded from, merged with or saved to a disk file (the default extension LST) and edited with internal playlist editor. The modules are fetched from the queue either sequentially or in a random order (the Jukebox mode). They are left in the queue (just marked as processed). When all modules were processed and the playlist looping was disabled, the playback terminates. Then a user can rewind the playlist by selecting the Next Module command. Or he can clear the playlist and create or load another. As before, you can start the player with modules or listfiles specified on the command line. All these modules are added into the internal queue and processed in a standard way. For more details on the command line arguments, see the section 10. If you start the player without any arguments you'll have to use the playlist editor to select some modules or you can load an existing playlist from disk. 8. BASIC COMMANDS Most commands and corresponding hotkeys are the same as in the DOS version. Playlist Editor Keyboard: Insert Mouse: click the left-most button in toolbar (with a note symbol) You can easily add or remove modules by double-clicking on them. Those modules in the playlist which were already processed are marked by a leading space. Once added it is not possible to change the position of a module in a queue (but you can remove it and insert it again into any other position). The playback will continue while the editor window is open, but only within a current module. When you press Enter (or the button) the action is as follows: 1. if the playlist is empty and some modules are selected then they are added to playlist (this allows the fastest selection of modules to play) 2. then, if the playlist is not empty, the editor window is closed and a playback is started Open Playlist Keyboard: Ctrl-O When you load the playlist from disk, its content is merged with a current queue and the new name is set (memorized). The listfile is a pure text file containing one filename per line. The processed files are marked by a leading space. The lines with leading ';', '#' are ignored. Save Playlist Keyboard: Ctrl-S You will have to confirm the destination file name. New Playlist Keyboard: Ctrl-N This is the only way how to clear the internal queue completely. Next Module Keyboard: Enter Mouse: click the corresponding button in toolbar If no module is being played and if there is an unprocessed module in the queue, the playback starts. If all modules are marked as processed, the user is asked to confirm queue rewinding. Pause/Resume, Stop Keyboard: Space, Esc Mouse: click the corresponding button in toolbar Fast Forward Keyboard: Up arrow Mouse: click the right arrow on the horizontal slider Until you release the key, the playback runs 4-times faster. No pattern data is skipped in this case. Pattern Back/Forward Keyboard: Left or Right arrow (this allows only skipping by a single pattern) Mouse: click anywhere in the horizontal slider or drag the thumb on either side Remaining pattern data is ignored. Active notes are terminated (so that they could not "hang"). Module Restart Keyboard: Ctrl + Left arrow Mouse: drag the thumb on the horizontal slider to the very left position Equalizer By mouse: click on the equalizer values on the right side of the main panel The child window is displayed which allows you to control all the equalizer settings including the effect parameters. You can control these values also directly from keyboard (without invoking the equalizer window) as follows: - + Main Volume down/up F5 F6 EMU8000 equalizer Bass Level down/up F7 F8 EMU8000 equalizer Treble Level down/up F9 F10 Reverb Level down/up F11 F12 Chorus Level down/up Song Message Keyboard: F4 By mouse: click on the song name (or anywhere on the left side of the panel) This command toggles the Song Message (only if it is present in a module) and Instrument Info windows. The columns displayed in Instruments Info are: - instrument name - instrument type: 8-bit, 16-bit, Adlib - sample length (in samples) - loop length (in samples) - resampling factor (in octaves) Options Keyboard: Alt + O This command invokes a player configuration window. For details, see the next section. Other important keyboard shortcuts are: F1 a simple help on keyboard commands PgDn PgUp scroll the Song Message or Instrument info Home End for a faster scrolling Ctrl-PgUp/PgDn - " - The old keyboard shortcuts not available in this first Windows version: F2 Fullscreen Log F3 Channels Screen Ctrl Up/Down Force Tempo 1-9 A-P S R Channel On/Off Alt-F9..F12 Effect Types You can control the playback even if the player is minimized. The main transport control commands have been added into a control menu (reachable by a right click on the minimized player in Windows 95 or a left click in Windows 3.x): - Next module - Stop - Pause A second group of commands is available through standard AMP hotkeys if the minimized player has got the keyboard focus. These are: - Pattern skip, Fast forward, Module restart - volume, equalizer and effect level controls 9. PLAYER OPTIONS Single mode The module loops are disabled in this mode. The loop detection works at the pattern level (it may fail only if some patterns are splitted into non-continuous parts). Pause mode In this mode the playback stops between modules and possible error messages are displayed in a message box (so they need to be acknowledged). To play the whole playlist without any user intervention you have to set the Pause mode = Off and Single mode = On. Jukebox mode Modules will be played in a random order. Force play A module will be loaded even if there is not enough sample memory. Some samples will be missing. No Playlist Looping The playlist won't rewind automatically if this checkbox is enabled. Save Playlist Position If the playlist's file name has been defined, the file will be updated (for a next session) when AMP terminates. SBKs loaded You can choose a level of protection for SBKs loaded in sample memory: 0. Overwrite - the memory will be overwritten without notifying the user 1. Warn at exit - the user will be notified if SBKs have been overwritten 2. Ask before.. - the user will be asked before overwriting any SBKs 3. Protect - the memory used by SBKs will never be used Timer precision This option is mainly for diagnostic purposes. It's recommended to leave it set to "Auto" (which gives 5ms for 386 machine and 3ms for 486 or better). Default panning This is the initial panning of the left/right MOD/S3M channels measured from the middle (0..100%, default 56%). It is similar to 'n' switch in DMP player. Downsampling control Use it to set the EMU8000 pitch safety value in semitones (1 to 24). A zero value has a special meaning - it disables downsampling at all. It controls the maximal EMU8000 sample rate used by AMP. The hardware limit is at 176.4kHz. The default value of one octave (12 semitones) means that samples will be downsampled so that the highest note won't exceed the virtual sample rate of 88.2 kHz. Very small values are not recommended as there must be some range left for vibratos and slides. Another reason is that EMU8000 doesn't avoid an aliasing distortion when doing a pitch up-shifting (i.e. for virtual sample rates above 44.1 kHz). Effects directory The directory where your FXR and FXC files reside. If you've configured it correctly you'll be able to use your custom effect types as well. An example: c:\awefxws\ (the final backslash is appended automatically) Initial data directory Here you can override the starting data directory used by AMP. An example: d:\modules\kosmic Initial values These are equalizer and effect settings that will be set when each module is loaded. The Volume can be set to "Automatic" (it replaces a zero value). Then the initial volume will depend on a number of channels used in current module. The volumes above 20 are not recommended as a sound distortion is possible. Font size You can choose a size of Windows OEM font that is used in the main window. To display the pseudographic characters correctly, only fixed pitch fonts with OEM (MS-DOS) character set are available. The size of the main window depends directly on this choice. Save button The displayed values are saved into AMPW.INI as well. 10. COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS You can specify one or more modules and/or listfiles on the command line. The listfiles (i.e. saved playlists) are distinguished by a leading '@'. You can use wildcards in module names. The module extensions may be omitted. You can override the default options (saved in AMPW.INI) by specifying any number of the following command line switches (they are not case sensitive and they have to be preceded by '-' or '/'): -S Single mode -P Pause mode -J JukeBox mode -F ForceLoad mode -L No Playlist Looping -A Save Playlist Position -Rn Reverb Level n = 0..100 [%] -Cn Chorus Level n = 0..100 [%] -Et Reverb Type t = a valid effect name (or FXR file) -Ot Chorus Type t = a valid effect name (or FXC file) -Mn Volume n = 0..64 -Bn Bass n = -12..+12 [dB] -Tn Treble n = -12..+12 [dB] -Nn Default Panning n = 0..100 [%] -Dn Downsample Ctrl n = 0..24 [halftones] -Kn SBK protection n = 0..3 The modes can be reset from the command line by appending the minus sign (e.g. -S-). Some examples of usage: a) To play all modules from a directory (all MOD/MTM/S3M/XM/PTM/IT extensions) you can create the shortcut as follows: AMPW E:\MODULES\* b) To play your favorite songs in a random order without a user interaction: AMPW @E:\MODULES\MY-BEST.LST -J -P- -S -L- c) To play specified modules with looping enabled: AMPW E:\MODULES\DOPE C:\*.XM -S- d) To play all modules from a directory sub-tree: (hint by Roger Dahl) DIR /B /S /A-D E:\MODULES >ALL.LST (creates a listfile) AMPW @ALL.LST 11. UNSUPPORTED MODULE EVENTS Unsupported pattern effects: - Set Filter (unsupported by ST3/FT2, Amiga HW specific effect) - Old ST Stereo Control (unsupported by ST3, does anybody know the function?) - Funk Repeat (unsupported by ST3/FT2, never seen it) - Set Finetune (unsupported by ST3, never seen it) - PTM effects J,K,L,M (does anybody know the function?) All other pattern effects are fully supported. The S3M Adlib instruments and channels are ignored. Up to 128 instruments are used in PTM modules. The IT format limitations in this beta: - instruments and NNAs not supported - channels above 32 ignored - channel volumes ignored - sustain loops ignored - IT specific effects ignored (anyway, there are many ITs that can be played with no problems - including almost all Basehead's IT modules which in fact have made me to start coding the IT routines :)) 12. SOMETHING ABOUT THE TREBLE SETTING When playing a module, there are 2 or 3 equalizers in chain: 1. the digital equalizer in EMU8000 2. the equalizer in AWE32 mixer (controlled by SB16SET or Windows mixer) 3. the equalizer in external amplifier I think there should be used only last one in chain. So I decided to set the default bass & treble levels of the EMU8000 equalizer to zero. But the AWE32 hardware defaults to the treble level approx. +10dB. That's why you can hear some loss of high frequencies compared to other AWE32 players which use the hardware default. 13. FUTURE PLANS - full IT support (the highest priority) - more views / screens - an output of warnings (as in the DOS based AMP) - internal option allowing to reload the overwritten SBK samples - a support for PnP cards configured to non-standard ports (only if there will be a sufficient demand) - support for ZIP/ARJ/etc archives - Win32 version (with long filenames, a better toolbar, ...) - online help 14. COMMON QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q. Where can I find latest AMP versions? A. They are likely to be found on these locations: http://frodo.hiof.no/~gislemm/tom/tom.html ftp://sdc.wtm.tudelft.nl/pub/music/groups/T_O_M http://www.edu.isy.liu.se/~d93jesno/awe32.html http://www.telebyte.nl/sound/ http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/~til/modpage.html http://www.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/programs Q. Why the player's look is so simple? A. I wanted to release this long awaited and innovative piece of software as soon as possible. There was not enough time to play with bitmaps, custom sliders, a help file etc. The player works with a minimal CPU load. It successfully lives with Windows MIDI drivers. It supports the full featured playlists. All other things are less important at the moment. Q. Why it is not a 32-bit application? A. Two reasons: 1. There are people still using Windows 3.x 2. The whole Windows multimedia system is 16-bit based (even in Win 95) Q. Where to get the updated Windows AWE drivers? A. The most preferable way is from Internet (www.creaf.com or ftp.creaf.com) Q. Why Windows NT isn't supported? A. Windows NT has a different device driver architecture. It does not support VxD drivers and the direct access to hardware is not allowed. Q. Can I use my playlists with a DOS version of the AMP player? A. The playlists are still pure text files. The only change is the leading space for distinguishing modules that have been already processed. Older DOS versions (up to 2.01) ignore these lines (modules). So you should save your playlist with -A option disabled to make it compatible with the DOS player. Q. Sometimes the font used in main window gets changed. Why? A. This is a known internal bug in Windows. The problem can appear when a DOS based application is terminated. You can repair the screen by changing a font size temporarily in player's options. Q. When I try to run the player with my AWE64 card, an error is reported. A. The AWE64 support will be added in a next version. 15. DISCLAIMER This software program is spread "as is", without express or implied warranty of any kind. In no event will author of this software program be liable for any special, incidental or consequential damages resulting from possession, use or malfunction of this software product. (E.g. deafness or blown speakers by the volume being turned up too high). 16. DISTRIBUTION RULES This program is shareware. The free unregistered version can load and play only MOD and S3M modules. To enable all module formats, you have to register. The first reason for requiring the registration was to prevent users from staying anonymous as before. The registration fee is very affordable and should be considered as a way how the author can get a minimal satisfaction for thousands of hours spent when writing both players. If I wanted to take that work as a real job, the price would have to be much higher. Please note that the DOS based AMP player is still free and I won't change anything about it. The unregistered software can be made available on Internet and BBS sites, as well as included on CD-ROMs containing other shareware/freeware programs provided that all files are distributed in their original unaltered form, preferably in the original archive. 17. THE LICENCE AGREEMENT AND COPYRIGHT In contrast with standard shareware rules the author grants you a permission to test and use the unregistered version for an unlimited time period. You are not required to delete the files if you've decided not to register. By registration a user obtains the fully functional version of the software and is granted the license to use the player on a single machine at a time. It is strictly prohibited to distribute registered copies of the software or registration information or to make it available to a third party. The software is owned by its author and is protected by copyright laws. You may not remove the copyright notice from any copy of the software. The reverse engineering, patching, hacking, cracking of this program, and all attempts to defeat the registration are a violation of the copyright and are strictly prohibited. Any violation against this rule may be subject to prosecution under copyright law. By installing and/or using the AMP for Windows software, you are hereby agreeing to all these license conditions. 18. HOW TO REGISTER Fill out the registration form (REGFORM.TXT). Send it by e-mail *or* save it on a 3.5" diskette and send it along with the cash. Don't forget to include your computer's stamp string that appears in AMPW.INI once the player was used. Enclose the cash (securely wrapped and hidden) into envelope and send it via regular mail to the address specified in the registration form. The registration costs $12. Only US dollars, DM, or CZK will be accepted. If you can't receive e-mail then add $3 for additional postage and handling. Then I will create a "genetic information" being able to initiate transmutation of your AMP player into the full version. I'll send it back to you along with instructions how to inject it. You should know that the registered player is not transferable. It will work only on the computer that was used to generate the stamp. Your registration will be applicable also for next player versions. Once registered you'll also be informed about new versions by e-mail if you've asked for it. 19. COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS OR ANYTHING ELSE Although the player was tested carefully, it may contain unknown bugs. Don't forget that it's a first public version. For that reason I've marked it as a beta. It was successfully tested on a couple of computers running Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and Windows 95. In case you find any major or minor problem with the player, please try to find the circumstances in which it happens. If you can't, don't worry - let me know anyway. I would also appreciate your comments (both positive and negative) and suggestions on the software itself. 20. CONTACTING THE AUTHOR If you want to contact me for any reason then send me a mail to: kopecky@tsoft.cz To those of you without an access to Internet, here is my snail mail address: Lada Kopecky Nad lesnim div. 1116 142 00 Praha 4 Czech Republic